News
NGOs to breathe life in the infrastructure of adopted govt schools
Concerned about the lack of facilities as well as poor condition of schools, the Indore zila panchayat has invited NGOs to help beautify more than 1,000 govt schools. An Indore NGO has already adopted 250 schools.
That the government schools are in chronic shortage of funds is not a new fact. However, how creatively the schools try to address that problem makes all the difference between students being able to get education or simply attending school without gaining functional literacy. Besides salaries, the second biggest item in the expenditure list for any school is the maintenance and upkeep of the school.
Shoddily maintained schools naturally are not student friendly and do not provide a conducive atmosphere for students to pick up fundamental concepts. In order to create a student-friendly environment in more than 1,000 government schools, Indore Zila panchayat is planning to rope in NGO's.
Concerned about the lack of facilities as well as poor condition of schools, the zila panchayat decided to work upon the condition of these schools so that the children feel safe in the premises. However, the implementation of the initiative will be undertaken only after the monsoon due to some technical issues.
"The NGO's were requested to help out in repairing the school buildings. The NGO's have agreed to help," said CEO, zila panchayat, Varad Murti Mishra. A well known NGO from Indore has already expressed desired and initiated the necessary steps to adopt over 250 government schools. “The NGO's will help in whitewashing as well as beautifying the school walls with aesthetic paintings," he added.
The remaining schools government schools will also be over time adopted by various other NGOs. This is an all round initiative where books will also be provided to children. "People have come up to donate literature books of Hindi as well as English for the government school students. Apart from the course books the students will also get an opportunity to read other books," said Mishra.
The entire programme will be time bound, scheduled to get over in 180 days in order to meet the defined deadline. Apart from this, looking at the imminent arrival of the monsoon, water harvesting work will also begin in the schools to conserve water.
There are pockets of initiative, proactive work happening in the government machinery which provide continued traction to government schools which are a very important part of our education infrastructure. After all they are educational institutes catering to first time learners.